Eve Branson, the 90-year-old mother of billionaire Sir Richard, has denied being saved from an inferno on her son's private Caribbean island by film star Kate Winslet.

In August 2011 it was widely reported that Titanic star Kate had rescued Eve as she tottered down stairs at Necker Island, picking her up in her arms and carrying her to safety, after a lightning storm caused a huge blaze.

But, in an interview with The Observer Magazine today Eve dismisses the heroic act, saying that Kate only carried her down four steps and ‘that was it.’

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Rescue: Kate Winslet wraps her arm around Sir Richard Branson's mother Eve, after the fire from his blazing home on Necker Island in the Caribbean

'She did not save me!' Eve Branson, right with her billionaire son Sir Richard in 1996, claims that, contrary to wide belief, she was not saved by Kate Winslet when Richard's Necker Island was on fire in 2011

Alight: Sir Richard Branson's luxury home on Necker Island in the Caribbean, which was been damaged by a middle-of-the-night fire on Monday August 22, 2011

She said it was actually her grandsons that saved her.

‘It was the hurricane of hurricanes and we were on fire and we would have all been burnt alive if it wasn't for my grandsons,’ she said.

Saved: Sir Richard Branson with his wife Joan, right, and daughter Holly, left, in 2011. The family escaped unhurt after a middle-of-the-night from the Necker Island fire, as did Richard's mother Eve, who has said her grandsons saved her, not Kate Winslet

Sir Richard Branson, who is worth nearly £4bn, owns the luxurious Caribbean island. The entire island operates like a resort and can accommodate up to 28 guests.

Sir Richard, 61, was staying in a villa about 100 yards away with his wife Joan and son Sam, 25, when the fire took place.

However Holly, 29, Kate and her family were staying with Eve in the Great House, which was burned to the ground.

The Virgin tycoon praised Miss Winslet for helping his mother to safety, and described the actress's children Mia, ten, and seven-year-old Joe as 'two of the bravest kids I've ever come across'.

Eve Branson previously said how she, ‘would have got down those stairs all right on my own,’ and that Kate only picked her up because she was worried about her own kids.

Eve said: ‘I think she was worried that I was holding up her children, so she picked me up and carried me.’

As reported in The Observer Magazine, Eve has been running the Eve Branson Foundation in Morocco for the past 16 years, helping local women in the villages of the Atlas Mountains to set up sustainable enterprises making craft items for sale.

‘I'm completely in love with Morocco,’ Eve told the magazine. ‘And these women, they've never really had the chance to make their own money. Up to the time I took them on, they had nothing - not even transport, they couldn't get anywhere.’